Page 2 of Weather the Storm

“No, never,” I assure her, gently brushing her hair back from her forehead.

One of the EMTs hustles me to the side. “Sir, we’ve gotta get her loaded up. You’re welcome to follow us.” The three of us watch as they load Magnolia into the back of the ambulance, Seraphine and Drake both wearing identical masks of worry, and my jaw is clenched so tight I’m shocked I haven’t cracked a molar.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, rubbing my hands over my face, wondering how in the hell this happened. “Drive me?”

Seraphine nods, and I look over to Drake. “Take care of shit here and lock up?”

“You know it, brother. Get outta here,” Drake tells me as we load up into Seraphine’s Rav4.

“Hang on!” Seraphine exclaims. She jogs over to Magnolia’s car and grabs her purse from the passenger’s seat. “Okay, let’s go!”

I climb into her small SUV and immediately push the seat back as far as it’ll go. “You have any idea what happened?” I ask Seraphine as she follows behind the ambulance, passing two tow trucks already on their way to my house.

“No clue. I was right behind her, but when she turned down your driveway, I lost sight of her for like ten seconds.Ten seconds, Simon—that’s it. I had to wait for a passing truck before turning in after her and I just…I don’t know. She just didn’t stop—it almost looked like she missed the pedal and accelerated instead.”

Mulling over her words, I drop my head back onto the headrest.Why wouldn’t she stop?I know she’s a bad driver, but damn.

Magnolia’s a mystery in every sense of the word. Even though we’ve hung out countless times in group settings, she’s always so quiet and guarded. Hell, the one occasion we spent time alone together was when Azalea and Seraphine talked her into going out to Big O’s, a local dive bar. Poor thing was completely overwhelmed by the crowd, and I kept her company at the bar while she quietly sipped her drink.

The first time I met her, I was on my way to meet our group for lunch. At the time, I didn’t realize she was a part of our crew.

At first, she was just a random, gorgeous woman. My vision was tinged by lust the minute my eyes landed on her, but that lust quickly morphed to anger when I noticed the douchenozzle yelling at her from the driver’s side window of the truck she was standing beside.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a temper, but let me tell you something: a woman will never bear the brunt of it. My sack-of-shit, worthless dad may not have taught me much, but through watching him, I did learn whatnotto do.

I watched for a moment to see if the situation would resolve itself, but then that asshole just had to get out of his truck. He flung his door open and got all up in her face, and I. WAS. FUCKING. DONE.

Real talk, I don’t give a shit what she did or didn’t do. You don’t treat people like that, especially someone half your size. Without giving it another thought, I charged toward them, ready to put this dude in his place.

Once I was close enough to make out their words, I could also see the tears dripping down her cheeks and the way her entire body was shaking. This prick was preying on her fear.

I didn’t speak a single word to her as I placed myself between them, shielding her from his verbal assault. “There a problem?” I asked the guy with a bite in my tone.

“Yeah, there’s a damn problem—this dumb bitch backed into me. Now my bumper has scuffs and—”

“I’m sorry, come again?” I asked, cutting him off.

“I said—”

“I heard what you said, dipshit, but you obviously misspoke.” I angled my head around him and inspected his bumper. The scuffs he was moaning about? Yeah, it was about two inches total, certainly nothing worthy of the way he was treating the blonde stunner behind me. “You’re willing to make this woman cry over a scuffed bumper? It’s called insurance, asshole. Did she give you her info?”

“Yeah, but—”

“But nothing. File the claim. It’s that fucking simple. Now, be on your way,” I told him, my unspoken threat ringing through loud and clear. I watched him with hawk-like focus as he walked back to his truck, kept my eyes on him as he propped himself up against the passenger side fender and pulled out his phone, presumably to call his insurance company. Once I was certain he was no longer a threat, I turned to face the woman behind me.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” I asked, reaching toward her, but she recoiled at the motion.

“F-f-fine. Th-thank you,” she stuttered out, eyes never leaving her feet.

“Hey,” I murmured gently, causing her to look up at me. I was struck speechless by the depth of her eyes—bluer than the sky on a cloudless day—only now, they were clouded with wetness from her tears. “Ignore him. Men like him get off on belittling others. Small Dick syndrome, they call it.” That garnered me a small laugh, which encouraged me to keep talking to her. “You got a name, sweetheart?”

“Ma-Magnolia,” she whispered.

A beautiful name for a beautiful woman, I thought, but I kept it to myself. “Well, I’m Simon McAllister, and it’s nice to meet you. Are you heading out or…?”

“Oh! I’m here to m-meet some friends for lu-lunch.”

“You go on in then, and I’ll take a look at your car to make sure it’s okay,” I said, even though we both knew it was fine—well, as fine as a rusty, old, beat-up Honda can be. More than anything, I wanted to make sure that asshole knew what was what.

---